This invention relates to a device for storing exposed film for a photographing and developing apparatus, which uses a roll film such as a microfilm and in which photographing of various materials and development of the exposed film are carried out. More particularly, the invention concerns improvements in a device for storing an exposed film for a photographing and developing apparatus, in which an exposed portion of an elongate roll film after exposure in the photographing of an object (a document, for example) in a photographing unit is taken up on a storage reel and, when developing the film from an intermediate part, the film is cut at a position after its exposed portion and then the exposed portion having been taken up on the storage reel is fed backwards from its trailing end to a developing unit to effect development.
Photographing and developing apparatuses using microfilms or the like serve important roles in the recording and orderly storage of various documents involved in transactions relating to checks and bonds at banks and other financial organs. Apparatuses of the type noted are finding extensive applications not only in the financial field but also in many other industrial fields including general business and industrial designing and manufacturing.
The photographing and developing apparatus using a microfilm for recording is required to be easily handled and capable of reliable execution of its functions as well as to provide high performance. To meet such requirements, the inventor has earlier proposed a photographing and developing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Sho 56-43632 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,041), Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure Sho 56-43633 and Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure Sho 56-121026.
The basic function of the photographing and developing apparatus of this type is to feed out an elongate film in the form of a roll frame by frame for photographing, take up the exposed film on a storage reel (as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosures Sho 56-43632 and Sho 56-121026) or store it in a storage chamber (as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure Sho 56-43633) and cut and feed out the film portion which has been used for photographing for each day, for instance, to a developing unit when developing that portion of the film. Although all of the technologies noted above seek to improve the performance and ensure accurate and reliable driving of the film, each entails certain problems. Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure Sho 56-121026, for instance, has problems in the accurate and reliable driving of film. The disclosed photographing and developing apparatus has a photographing unit disposed as an upper section and a developing unit disposed as a lower section. A storage reel is supported above a roll film provided in the photographing unit. When photographing a document, the film is forwarded, and the exposed film is led to a guide path, which has an upper end directed to the storage reel, from below the guide path to be taken up on the storage reel. When developing the exposed portion of the film, the film is first forwarded until the trailing end of the exposed film portion enters the lower end of the guide path, and then the film is cut at the lower end of the guide path. Thereafter, the separated exposed film portion is fed backward from the lower end of the guide path to the developing unit for development. While this arrangement can sufficiently fulfill its aim, in the backward feeding of the separated exposed film for development the cut trailing end is led out without being supported in any way from the lower end of the guide path and proceeds in this state toward the developing unit. Therefore, there is a possibility that the cut end may fail to reach the developing unit.